Li Auto CTO Wang Kai to Leave Position, Sources Say

Feb 15, 2022, 19:38pm2022/02/16 02:32:35 Pandaily

On Tuesday, 36kr learned from several sources that Wang Kai, CTO of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Li Auto<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder />, will leave in the near future after joining the firm less than two years ago. The firm has so far refused to issue any comment on the news.

During the organizational restructuring of the company at the end of January, the businesses handled by Wang Kai, including autonomous driving, computing platform and operating system LiOS, have been handed over to Ma Donghui, a co-founder and chief engineer of Li Auto<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder />.

After the structural adjustment, Ma Donghui will be fully responsible for the R&D of the car, electric power, cockpit, smart driving, computing platform, electronic architecture and LiOS. Thus, it appears Ma would substantively become the CTO.

According to the company’s official website, Wang Kai joined Li Auto<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> in September 2020 as CTO. He was fully responsible for the R&D and mass production of smart car related technologies, including electronic architecture, smart cockpit, autonomous driving, platform development and LiOS real-time operating systems.

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Before joining Li Auto<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder />, Wang Kai worked for Visteon, a German auto supplier, for eight years. He had served as the global chief architect and director of autonomous driving at Visteon.

In January 2022, Li Auto<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> delivered 12,268 units of large premium electric SUV Li ONEs, an increase of 128.1% year-on-year. Since the first delivery, the cumulative delivery volume of the Li ONE model has reached 136,356.